Let's Have Lunch and Talk * Nadia Alegria Amore

niche dating sites

For many of us, the search for romance is like looking for a needle in a haystack. In honor of the year 2017, let’s browse 17 quirky and/or niche, smaller dating sites that make romance more of a search for a needle IN a needle.

With over 2 million members, Fitness Singles touts itself as the world’s largest online dating community for sports and fitness enthusiasts. The sign-up process is easy and straightforward with a focus on fitness activities and a healthy lifestyle.

When filling out your profile, you’re asked to list your top three fitness categories and your skill level. You can list additional activities as well. I didn’t particularly care for the physical attributes section, which asks your weight and height as well as your body type, appearance, and best feature. You can pick “you decide” for the best feature and appearance categories but you have to answer the other questions. I decided to go for it and answer all the questions.

Loading your profile and browsing other profiles is free but you need to be a paying member to respond to or initiate messages. When an interesting man reached out to me yesterday morning, I decided to sign up for 6 months. Time will tell whether this guy or the site is worth it. It’s a big online dating weekend and I’m not sure how much credence to put into the decent amount of attention my profile received in the last 24 hours.

Wondering if anyone else’s cat has an expressive tail? You’ll get an answer and a possible soul mate if you visit Purrsonals, a dating and social networking site for cat lovers. The site advertises a 14-day free trial. I didn’t sign up because, hey, I’m a dog person.

“i’m ugly, you’re ugly, let’s go” may not be the best profile headline but it seems okay when browsing the Ugly Schmucks site.

The site describes itself as “geared towards people who may feel unattractive or uncomfortable in their own skin and is designed to help them succeed in meeting others who value genuine personality over outer appearance.”

Although Ugly Schmucks says its members want to be judged for “what’s on the inside,” most of them are not taking chances: the majority of profiles do not have photos. However, the guys who have profiles do not look any “uglier” to me than the ones on other sites. It’s all about self-perception.

Ugly Schmucks is free to browse but, like most sites, you have to pay to send and receive messages.

Feeling burdened by clothes? This may be the site for you. Naturist Passion (NP) implores you to “find true nudists for dating and friendship!!”

No need to worry about what outfits to wear in your profile photos since you won’t be wearing clothes.

Naturist Passion claims it is the “first, most-trusted and largest site for nudist/naturist friends in the world.” NP describes its members as those who enjoy living naked, skinny dipping, and meeting others with this lifestyle.

According to NP, “Nudism is a fun, healthy, freeing and wholesome way for men and women to socialize and live without clothes. Naturism is a philosophy that values simplicity and increased harmony with nature.”

If any of this resonates with you, 2017 might be your year to date naked.

If you’d like to make 2017 a year of volunteering, consider Your Cause or Mine. This cause-related dating community brings together singles interested in local causes. Members are matched based on location and cause interests. Once matched, the site suggests volunteer and cause events the couple could attend together. You can also search for volunteer and cause-related events. I’d consider joining this site.

You don’t have to be a sea captain to join Sea Captain Date. “Any lonely soul who simply yearns for the ocean breeze can sign up for a free account.” I love the ocean but I’m not impressed by the sample profiles I viewed on the site. Perhaps you might like the 23-year-old “AllHandsonDick” or the 74-year-old with ED who loves to spoon. Next!

Do you prefer tractors to sports cars, rich soil to concrete, fresh fruits and veggies to take-out? If so, Farmers Only might be the way to go. It’s easy to become a standard free member in order to browse profiles, send flirts, and receive a notice that a member has flirted with you. Only premium, paid members can email other members. The selection in my area and age range is limited but there may be better prospects in your location.

Reluctant older daters get dating encouragement via My Lovely Parent. The children or friends of the hesitant daters initiate the application process and the site sends the prospective member an invitation link to complete his or her profile.

My mission, should I decide to complete it, is to try 5 niche dating sites and to report back to you the results of my test drive. Your mission is to comment on my posts, join a couple of sites yourself, and let me know how it goes.

I have some white friends who fantasize about dating black men – fully believing that there is truth in the sexual prowess stereotypes rampant in popular culture. Dating black men has not been on my fantasy list – any more than dating men of any other ethnicity. But I’m open to it and find that I can be attracted to men from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds.

As a young white girl growing up in the 50’s in DC, I recall my first crush on David, an 8-year old black boy. We were great friends and I loved to spend time with him. We often walked home from school together and played at each other’s houses.

One afternoon after school, Agnes, my black babysitter, picked me up at David’s house. As we walked back to my house, she stopped and shook her finger at me. “You can’t play with him anymore,” she said. “You have to be careful about black boys. They’re not nice,” she warned. “David IS nice,” I replied in shock.

I felt I had done something wrong and I don’t recall why I never mentioned the conversation to my parents. But Agnes must have controlled my play dates because after that warning David and I only saw each other occasionally.

It was much later in life that I realized Agnes’ reason for curtailing the childhood friendship of a white girl and a black boy. From her perspective, black boys in relationships with white girls were at risk of serious trouble. As a history refresher, interracial marriage wasn’t legal in the U.S. (aside from specific states) until 1967.

Fast-forward to 2015 and my profile submission to ebonyivorydating.com. As a new member, I won a free 30-day “gold” membership, giving me all of the major necessary functions such as email, flirting, etc. I found it easy to sign up, load my profile and main photo, and fill out the “about me” and “about my match” questionnaire.

Beef #1: The geographic preference section does not function well. The site advises you to hold the shift key down to select multiple locations but that doesn’t work. I was unable to select DC, MD, and Virginia. Finally I chose distance from my zip code as my geographic parameter.

Beef #2: The site sends me matches from all over the US. Not my choice.

The site’s “flirt” game is solely based on a guy’s photos. You are shown a member’s photo and asked, “Do You Want to Flirt With This Member?”

Beef #3: You have to leave the flirt page and search for the man’s user name in order to read his profile. If you like him, then you can go back to the flirt page and say you’d like to flirt. Cumbersome!

I’m not sure yet what kind of “flirt” I will receive if a guy wants to flirt with me.

It’s been less than 24 hours since I signed up so it’s too early to judge the success of this site. However, by comparison, I received many more inquiries when I first signed up on Plenty of Fish, Match, and OK Cupid.

Perhaps this is related to number of subscribers. I’m not sure how many guys are actually on ebonyandivorydating.com. The site claims to have millions of users. Time will tell.

So far it appears that the racial balance on ebonyivorydating is similar to other non-niche sites. When I created my profile, I selected matches in all races.

My plan is to keep the all races preference for now and then to retool it to see what happens. It’s an adventure!